Tag Archive: greta oto

The Greta Oto or the glass-winged butterfly, is a butterfly that has attractive transparent wings with an opaque lining along the edges. It is mainly been found in Mexico and along the panama Islands. One of the surprises it has for people who study the lives of these organisms is that there are some debates about where it lays its eggs. Some have pointed to some grounds around the places where it is found. But evidence has pointed to the fact that it lays its eggs on the leaves of plants. A fully developed adult can easily be seen in the groups when time comes for migration. They have been known to migrate for long distances as compared to other species of butterflies.

When the glass winged butterfly lays eggs, the caterpillar that later develops from the larva is considered to be toxic. For this reason, this caterpillar is not eaten by predators. In fact, even a fully grown butterfly is considered to be toxic

Image credit: Flickr Rene Mensen

and is not eaten too. This is mainly attributed to its feeding on toxic vegetation by the male butterflies. These males use the chemicals from such plants to develop features that attract females. In fact, this is one feature which has helped in marking its survival amongst a series of possible predators.

The wings of a glass winged butterfly have been estimated to be between 56milimeters to 61 millimeters. The body of this amazing butterfly is also something intriguing enough to capture even the attention of the busiest individual. First, it has those elegant translucent wings with edges ranging in color from brown to red or generally opaque. But the body is completely dark in color. The feature of having colorless wings seems to have been so distinctive that its Spanish name is espijitos which, when translated, in English literally means little mirrors. Perhaps that is why even in many other languages that have attempted to give is unique names have all ended up having something to say about the main feature.